vSphere Automation SDK Overview

The vSphere Automation API provides a unified programming interface to vSphere Automation services that you can use through the SDKs provided for two programming languages. The vSphere Automation API provides a service-oriented architecture for accessing resources in the virtual environment by issuing requests to the vSphere Automation API endpoint.

Client applications use the vSphere Automation API to communicate with infrastructure and management vCenter Server services.

Figure 1. Communication Model Between a Client Application and the vSphere Automation API
The communication model between a client application and the vSphere Automation endpoints is graphically represented.

Client applications use the Lookup Service to retrieve the vCenter Single Sign-On endpoint, the vSphere Automation API endpoint, and the endpoints of services that are exposed through the VMware vSphere® API. To access vSphere Automation services such as those for managing content libraries and vSphere tags, client applications send requests to the vSphere Automation API endpoint. By using the vCenter Single Sign-On service, client applications can either establish an authenticated vSphere Automation session, or authenticate individual requests to the vSphere Automation API endpoint.

Client applications can access services that are exposed through the vSphere Web Services API by using the VMware vSphere® Management SDK.

SDK Developer Setup

To start developing client applications that use the vSphere Automation API, you must download the desired SDK from the VMware GitHub Repository or from the respective vSphere Automation SDK landing page at https://developer.vmware.com and set up your development environment. You can find instructions for setting up your development environment in the README files contained in each vSphere Automation SDK.

API Explorer

The API Explorer is a VMware utility similar to the Managed Object Browser (MOB). Access the API Explorer at https://<vcenter_ip_address_or_fqdn>/apiexplorer or from the API Explorer tab of the Developer Center pane in vSphere Client. Use the utility to connect to the vSphere Automation API endpoint, browse through the available vSphere REST APIs, and make calls to your vCenter Server instance.

SDK Samples

The vSphere Automation SDKs provide code samples that demonstrate how the vSphere Automation API work and how they interoperate with the vSphere Web Services API. The code snippets included in this documentation are based on the samples in the vSphere Automation SDKs.